Doing the Right Thing (20 page)

Sadly, Will had no idea what he was doing. He wanted to talk to her, but he didn’t know what to say, so until he could think of something sensible, he continued to trail her. After he’d eaten the meal Vee produced on Thursday, Will had a terrible night. A combination of stomachache from her cooking and listening to her sobbing in the adjoining room because he refused to sleep with her. Last night, Ed drove straight from work to London for the weekend. Will felt guilty because he knew Ed would have stayed in Leeds if Vee hadn’t been in the house.

When Will had left for Enerchex yesterday morning, he’d made it clear to Vee that he didn’t want to see her there when he got back. He hadn’t made it clear enough. After a long day at work, trying not to think about Addie, he returned to Alwoodley still thinking about Addie and found Vee lying across the coffee table, wearing a black leather outfit and surrounded by a selection of sex toys. He was both appalled and sad.

“You always liked to watch me get off with a vibrator,” she said.

No, he thought, it was
her
who liked to get off with a vibrator in front of him.

“I need more than that now, Vee.”

Not the best thing to say. She’d come at him with a cock ring and Will felt sick. No problem with the cock ring, just with her. He pretended to get drunk and then pretended to pass out, facedown on the couch. He stayed there until he was sure Vee had given up. He was disgusted at how weak he was.

Addie walked into a shoe shop and Will resigned himself to a morning spent doing what he used to do with Vee, albeit at a distance and without him using his credit card.

He slipped into the doorway of a chemist as she stopped again. He wanted her to look up, see him and smile so he could sweep her into his arms, but she walked around with her eyes on the pavement, looking so unhappy it made his heart ache.

One hour of shopping was enough for Addie before she headed for Cliffe Castle museum on the far side of town. For warm, free entertainment, it was hard to beat. She cheered up as she wandered around. Her eyes took in an Egyptian mummy, fossils, cases of crystals and gems, walls of stained glass, Will, and stuffed specimens of local wildlife.
Roll that again.
Addie thought she was hallucinating, but when she turned he was still there, next to the stuffed badger.

“Sorry. I had no idea you were in here. I didn’t follow you,” she said.

“No, I know. I followed you.”

Will gave a sheepish grin and her mouth opened in a silent
oh
.

“I need to talk to you.”

When he put out his hand, Addie watched her hand rise to meet his. He tugged her outside and pulled her into his arms.

“I can’t stop thinking about you.” He breathed into her ear and Addie forgot how to think. “When you’re not with me, I’m miserable. When you are with me, you drive me crazy. When I look at you, I don’t ever want to be apart from you.”

Addie forgot how to speak.

“Will you let me explain? It’s not what you think. Please?”

She managed one nod.

“Hungry?” Will asked.

She shook her head, then nodded.

Will laughed. “That sort of covers it.”

“If you nod in Bulgaria it means no and if you shake your head it means yes,” she said.
God take me now.

“Is that right?”

Anxiety twisted her stomach. It reminded Addie of her first cliff jump, the worry that if she misjudged the leap, she might crash into rocks, even though she’d been assured there was no danger. How could anyone be certain there wasn’t something lurking underneath the surface? Some off-course great white shark. Or Vee.

Will gripped her hand tighter and led her back to his car.

“Why didn’t you tell me it was your first time?” he asked.

“What could I have said?”
Have you got one in a smaller size?

“Told me to be careful.”

“I didn’t want you to be careful.”

Will pushed her up against the car and pulled her hand up between them, squeezing her fingers. “I wasn’t lying about liking tall women, Addie.”

She pressed her lips together.

“It’s true Vee was important to me once. She isn’t part of my life anymore but she’s having difficulty accepting that. She’s not…stable. I had no idea she even knew I was in Leeds, let alone where I lived. I wasn’t expecting her. I don’t want her here. I don’t want her anywhere.”

Hope blossomed inside Addie, like one of those paper flowers that spring open in water—growing, growing, growing.

“Vee was violent toward another woman I dated. She threatened her with a knife.”

A few petals fell off the disintegrating blossom.

“Ed was trying to protect you, but that was my job. I was just so shocked that she’d turned up. Shocked too that it was your first time, that you hadn’t told me.” He kissed her fingers. “I was an idiot and I froze.”

“Has she gone back to London?”

“I hope so.”

“Are you really sorry, Will?”

“Yes.” He stared into her eyes. “Let me show you how much.”

Will pulled into the car park of a Marriott Hotel.

“Did you book a room?” Addie whispered, her eyes opening wide.

“Actually, I brought you here for lunch.”

He glanced at her and saw the flush rise up her neck and flood her face.

“Addie, I did bring you for lunch, but maybe we could have it on our own. I didn’t book a room. I wasn’t that presumptuous.”

She hesitated.

“Shall I get us a room?” he asked.

Will knew he shouldn’t push her, much as he desperately wanted to get her somewhere private and lick her all over—more than once. Maybe he should tell her that, but as he opened his mouth, she nodded. “Yes, get us a room.”

He wasn’t sure what he’d have done if the hotel had been full. Yes he did. He’d have kept looking until he found one that wasn’t, but not go back to Alwoodley, just in case Vee was still there.

The moment they were in the hotel room with the door closed, Will spun Addie around, pressed her against the wall and wrapped her in his arms. He landed feathery kisses all over her face as she clutched his shoulders. His heart was pumping furiously, and appeared to be sending all his blood on a one-way voyage to his groin. The bulge in his pants grew larger by the second. Will’s brain set off on a journey of its own, remembering those few moments when he’d had her lying naked next to him and how it had been so good and then so terrible. This was another chance and he wasn’t going to ruin it by going too fast. He pressed his forehead against hers.

“Are you very hungry? Do you need to eat now?” he whispered.

“Yes. No.”

Thank God.
He thought.
Will peeled off her sweater to reveal a short-sleeved, V-necked purple top. He kissed his way down her neck into the hollow of her shoulder, running his teeth along her collarbone, reveling in her shudders of pleasure and the breathy sighs whispering from her lips. He made love with his mouth, flicking his tongue along her arms, pausing in the bend of her elbow because that made her moan louder, then on to her fingers, sucking each one into his mouth before he set off up the other arm, back to her lips. He savored every inch of her, adoring her. His cock throbbed, pressing against his zipper, struggling to find room to grow.

Will bent his head to her ear. “Oh God, Addie. Have you any idea how much I want you? You’re driving me insane. I want to kiss you all over, lick you all over, taste your skin, tease your nipples, suck your clit. I want you naked in my arms, groaning in my ear. I want those gorgeous legs wrapped tight round my hips. I want to put my fingers inside you, then my tongue inside you and after I’ve made you come a million times, I’ll put my cock inside you and fuck you all the way to heaven.”

At those words she went off like a rocket. He stroked her face as she shook and sighed, and Will thought he could have come as easily himself, just by looking at her.

When her eyes opened, he watched as the color changed, going darker yet brighter.

Addie took a shaky breath. “You’re going to have to stop talking to me. Not another word. Not even hello or goodbye. ”

He laughed. “There’s nothing I want to stop doing to you.”

As Will moved back to pull off his sweater, she leaned against the wall. But the moment he sat on the edge of the bed to take off his shoes and socks, Addie stepped forward and dropped to her knees.

“Let me.” She unfastened the laces and eased off his shoes. “Umm, black and brown socks. Did you get dressed in the dark?”

“What?” Will looked down and then smiled. “Funny girl.”

Addie peeled off the first sock and when she ran her fingers along his toes, a frisson of excitement skittered up his spine.

“You’ve got hairy feet. Are you a Shire man, Master Will?”

“Maybe you should stop the wisecracks before you get any further up my leg.”

He knew she was nervous and the humor her way of coping, as was the starting with his toes, but she could start any place she liked so long as she didn’t stop. Addie pulled off the other sock and tossed it over her shoulder. When she began to massage his feet, Will fell back with a groan. The sensation of her fingers pressing into his soles, her thumbs digging in below his ankles drove almost every thought from his head.

When Addie’s lips touched his skin, his heart began to slam around his body as if caught in a pinball machine, pinging between his throat and his groin, gathering points, ratcheting up his desire. There appeared to be a pyramid in the process of being erected inside his pants as his cock became more determined to stretch out. What Will thought was full hardness had found another point on the diamond scale. He ached with the need to come, ached with the desire not to come yet. Her hand slid up the inside of his trouser leg and his calf muscles tightened. Addie pulled the hairs on his shins through her fingers.

“Like to check if I’m hairy all over?” Will asked.

“I already know you’re not. The mystery has gone. Such a pity.”

Addie removed her own shoes and socks and crawled onto the bed, her knees either side of his hips. She unbuttoned his shirt from the top. Will suspected that if he touched her, he’d lose control in seconds, so he kept still and pressed his fingers into the bedcover. Addie ran her hands over his shoulders and down his arms, and he let her maneuver him so she could peel off his shirt. Will watched her as intently as she watched him, her mixed-up eyes drinking in his body, his lustful eyes already drunk on hers.

“Like what you see?” He was ashamed he needed to ask.

“I can understand why you need to go to the gym.” She pinched flesh at his waist.

“Ouch. You are on such dangerous ground,” he growled.

Addie laughed. “You’re toned to perfection. You look like a model. Well, apart from a little—”

Will tensed, then caught the smile on her lips.

“You monster,” he said.

Her fingers explored, constantly shifting between stroking, squeezing, caressing, but always teasing. Will groaned every time her hand accidentally-on-purpose brushed his groin. Agony and ecstasy. His balls were screaming abuse at him while his cock had stopped speaking altogether. Will was torn between wanting this to go on forever or ripping his pants off, her pants off and shoving himself inside her. Only he couldn’t do that. This time everything had to be for her. There was so much he wanted to do to her, so much he wanted to show her but Addie had to set the pace. When she dropped her head to his chest and licked his nipple, his balls tightened to the point of pain and Will gasped her name. “Addie.”

“Do you like that?” Her eyes sparkled as she looked up at him and he almost came undone.

“Nothing you can do that I won’t like,” he mumbled.

She pulled at his nipple with her teeth and slid her hand over the bulge in his pants.

“Oh fuck,” Will whispered, and clutched harder at the bedcover.

“You’ll tell me, won’t you, if I do something wrong.”

The way she chewed her lip told him there was something he wasn’t getting here but his befuddled brain struggled to grasp what it could be.

“You can do anything you like to me,” he blurted, because in a few minutes, he intended to do what he liked to her.

“I haven’t done any of this before.”

Shit.
Will tried to swallow the lump in his throat.
That
was what he’d missed. Not just a virgin but a
virgin.

“I’ve never been out on a date. The only guy to kiss me before you was a drunk Australian. He threw up afterwards. I hope it was the alcohol, not me. I’ve never touched a man’s chest, never touched a man—here.”

Her hand stroked the length of his cock, still trying to escape its confines. Will had to fight not to whimper. He could guess how much it had cost her to tell him this.

“I think I’m the luckiest guy in the world,” he said. He pulled her up the bed so she lay next to him and they rested face-to-face. “There’s no right and wrong way with this.

Everyone likes something different. Some people are too shy to ask for what they want, others direct their partner like they’re conducting an orchestra.” Like Vee, he thought and instantly banished her from his head. “It’s like the first time for me too. We’re learning together. We can teach each other. Please forgive the horrible mess I made last time.
This
is our moment.”

Her lips quivered and Will lifted a hand to her cheek and kissed her. Addie opened to him like a flower and Will slipped his tongue inside her mouth. He traced the curving line of her teeth, the arch of her hard upper palate, the fleshy pads of her cheeks. Her tongue tangled with his, played, teased, tickled. Addie’s hand settled on his face and Will pushed and withdrew his tongue as if he were fucking her. Their hips echoed the movement and they rocked together, kissing and kissing until neither of them could breathe and they fell apart with choked laughs.

“You kiss…like…” Addie gasped.

“Like…what?”

“You want…to eat me.”

He smiled and slipped down the bed to place soft kisses on her breasts, sucking her nipples through her top until Addie writhed beneath him and he couldn’t keep her still.

Whisking the T-shirt over her head, Will sighed when he saw the simple cotton bra. He wanted to buy her red lace underwear, wanted to fuck her while she wore it. He licked along the edge of her bra, pulling at her nipples one after the other with his teeth until they were as hard and firm as beads. Will trailed his hand down her body, traced a circle around her navel with a fingertip and sighed when her skin trembled. His mouth followed his hand, and when he put his lips on the silver screw and sucked, Addie squealed.